Art Journal 2020: Love (a guest post)

Today I have the pleasure of my friend, Vanessa Wright's #ArtJournal2020 contribution. She loves using zentangles in her art journal, and I thought it a good idea to let her tell you how she approached this art journal about LOVE using zentangles.

Zentangle was invented by a monk, Rick Roberts and an artist by the name of Maria Thomas and meditation met art. This method of drawing promotes concentration, creativity and personal well-being. This art form is traditionally drawn on 9x9 tiles.

2020 saw the beginning of an exciting art journey for me and my friend, Linzé Brandon. We started art journaling. After reading up on a few articles and watching endless YouTube tutorials, I finally knew which direction I wanted to take regarding this art form.

• First and foremost it needed to be a personal journey, not just random art for art's sake.
• Secondly, I wanted to do something that had only rarely, if ever been done. I had been part of the Tangle all around Facebook group, run by Alice Dean Hendon for nearly a year and yet had any artwork to show for it. This was the perfect opportunity.
• Thirdly I wanted to be able to look back at the pieces and see whether I had gown as an artist. 

Here is the process I used for this zentangle art journal entry:

1. I decided to repurpose an old hardback book which was missing a few pages and was doomed to be thrown away. As the pages were stitched and not glued, I was able to rip out nearly half of them.
2. I then glued 3 pages together by applying gel medium and added two layers of gesso to prepare them for anything I wished to throw at them. I was worried that the text, which was still visible, would impact the artwork, but my acrylic background covered it effortlessly.
3. I mixed sap green and lemon yellow and lightened areas with titanium white which I applied directly to the page.

   

   Zentangles around a cut out

4. Sap green and some fingerprint action made the edges slightly darker.
5. I cut out paper hearts, printed the quote and the word, love, and stuck them in with gel medium.
6. I used washi tape to divide both pages. Do not tangle with expensive Pigma Microns on this surface, use a cheaper Artline pen or a Sharpie as it destroys the tips of the Micron pens.
7. Tangle carefully to avoid smudging. There are literally thousands of tangle patterns available on the web; the sky is literally the limit.

I like the simplicity of the finished page as most of the art journaling tutorials I watched were so overdone and involved stencils and stamps and paper and magazine cut outs and and and....

This was why the zentangles appealed to me. I hope you are inspired to try this, so relaxing and super fun.

The final result of the zentangle art journal entry

Thank you, Vanessa! Phew, that must have taken quite a bit of time and I know you enjoyed every moment.

If you like to use zentangles in your art journal, why not share them with me on Twitter with the #JournalArt2020, I would love to see what your creative results look like.

Until next time!

💜 Linzé